Fresno State dedicates maple trees as Japanese disaster reminder [VIDEO] Learning Zone

26 Jun

Fresno State dedicates maple trees as Japanese disaster reminder [VIDEO]

Posted by Abbey Dinah in Learning Zone | Tags :Disaster, Maple Trees | No Comments

Three donated Trident maple trees were installed near the Maple Mall at California State University, Fresno as a remembrance of the earthquake and tsunami disaster that devastated Japan on March 11.

At a ceremony Wednesday, June 8, university President John D. Welty said the trees planted west of the Conley Art Building “symbolize Fresno State’s connection with Japan.”

The trees were donated by Jon Reelhorn, a Fresno State alumnus and owner of Belmont Nursery in Fresno. Trident maples (Acer buergeranum) are drought- and frost-tolerant trees with a spectrum of fall color. They can grow to a height of 35 feet with a rounded shape that can extend to a 30-foot circumference.

They are native to eastern China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan and arrived in the United States in 1972 from Japan at Fresno’s Henderson Experimental Garden, part of Belmont Nursery.

Two of the trees at Fresno State are estimated to be about 10 years old and the other 15-20 years.

Two granite boulders join the trees in a tranquil setting that overlooks the Maple Mall, a central greenbelt and walkway area on campus that also is home to the Submarine Veterans Memorial.

Welty said the design of the remembrance area by Fresno State Facilities Management grounds team members Mike Frick and Gene Maurer is “eloquently simple and meshes perfectly with the entire Maple Mall.”

Joining Welty for the event were Dr. Yoshiko Takahashi, a professor of criminology and adviser to Fresno State’s Japanese Student Association; Tomoki Ueda, the club vice president; and Dr. Jody Hironaka-Juteau, associate dean of the College of Health and Human Services and a member the Fresno chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League board of directors.

The student group helped lead campus relief efforts, collecting more than $9,000. In the disaster, more than 23,500 people were killed or are missing.

Hironaka-Juteau said, “Japanese people and culture have been a part of Fresno State for so many years.” As recent examples, she cited, conferral of degrees on Japanese-Americans whose time on campus was interrupted by internment in World War II; exhibitions and special collections dedicated to the Japanese-American experience, and the students’ fundraising efforts.

The new trees are near an aging silver maple, that likely will have to be removed in a few years because of disease. By then the new trees should be well established.